ISPs want Beeb to pay for iPlayer bandwidth

According to the FT, Tiscali, BT, and Carphone Warehouse have raised concerns with the BBC about the iPlayer, saying that it will clog up their networks by using a lot of bandwidth “The internet was not set up with a view to distributing video. We have been improving our capacity, but the bandwidth we have is not infinite,” said Mary Turner, chief executive of Tiscali UK. Ms Turner said that unless they could agree a strategy with the BBC to share network costs, Tiscali would have to restrict users’ access to the iPlayer.

Is it just me that thinks this is a bit rich coming from a company who own and run an IPTV service (as do BT, of course). Granted IPTV usually runs over a closed network, but still. It does of course highlight the fact that we are still stuck with quite slow broadband connections and caped download limits (streaming counts as a download) in the UK. Also ,this will wake up the net neutrality nerds with the implication from Tiscali that the Beeb would need to pay to guarantee there was enough bandwidth allocated to their services.

Comments

Over the top TV (OTT) uses someone else’s infrastructure to deliver content relegating the infrastructure provider to little more than a pipe. Infrastructure providers or ISPs are unable to generate revenue over networks that weren’t designed to support video or such large amount of data. Ultimately. however. OTT cannibalises their own services.